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Mitigating Risks from Gas Releases with CAPEX and OPEX Considerations

DID YOU KNOW?

The success rate of a gas detection system to detect gas releases in known incidences is only about 60%*.

The effectiveness of the safety shutdown system to mitigate risks arising out of accidental gas releases is highly dependent on the associated gas detection system's ability to reliably detect gas releases, and to detect it quickly. Modern gas detection technologies are now available to help you improve the success rate of gas detection.

Speak to our specialists to understand how MSA's latest gas detection technologies can help you reduce the risks that you face each day.

Having multiple layers of detection, is presently the best defense against these risks.

MSA has a very complete range of gas detection technologies, each well suited for detecting a different stage of gas release. This is complemented by a good range of flame detectors, gas and flame mapping tools, safety rated controllers and in-house integration capabilities. We have a very complete solution to protect customers from the risks caused by accidental gas releases.

The gas and flame detection system is put in place to reduce the consequence of gas explosions and fires. Consequences could include one or more of the following:

Capital loss due to infrastructure damage

Serious injury or loss of life

Production loss due to process shutdowns

Environmental contamination

Lawsuits

The biggest factor that limits the effectiveness of any gas detection system is Detection Coverage. If the system is unable to detect the gas (i.e. "cover"), then it would not know when to execute the needed safety actions. Detection Coverage is therefore crucial.

Challenge of Risk Reduction

Almost all gas detection technologies need the gas to 'arrive' at the detector (or detection line) in order for detection to occur. In reality, positioning gas detectors to ensure that a high likelihood of this happening is an engineering challenge, especially for outdoor process areas. Mechanical obstructions, area congestion due to equipment and piping, release mechanisms, direction of release, impingement, relative density of the released gas and wind influence, are all factors that influence the behavior of gas plumes and make detector placement a very difficult task for the engineer.

Improving Detection Effectiveness

It is common these days, to find the engineer relying on software tools (i.e. gas dispersion modelling, gas and flame mapping) to help determine detector positions by simulating the behavior of gas releases and the resulting plumes. While there has been significant advances of such tools, a good measure of design assumptions supported by engineering experience is usually still needed. What this means is, a degree of uncertainty often remains. The engineer can attempt to reduce this uncertainty by making more safety conservative assumptions. But a more conservative approach in favor of safety, may also result in a greater number of detectors (i.e. higher CAPEX) and a corresponding increase in maintenance (i.e. higher OPEX). In this era of cost cutting and restraining, this is likely to be a difficult balancing act.

Solutions by MSA

An understanding of different gas detection technologies and its suitability for detecting at different stages of release can make a difference. It is possible to improve detection effectiveness without an excessive increase in detector quantity. This means CAPEX (and OPEX) can be restrained, even when a more safety conservative approach is preferred.

The effectiveness of the gas detection system to reliably detect unintentional gas releases quickly is crucial for the mitigation of flammable gas explosion risks or toxic gas poisoning risks. The selection of detection methods and strategic siting of detectors are critical engineering decisions that impact system effectiveness. Since such decisions have CAPEX and OPEX implications, asset owners would benefit by applying newer detection technologies, that are not only more effective but offer also significant cost savings over time.

The ability of the gas detection system to detect gas releases reliably and quiickly is crutial for the mitigation of flammable gas explosion risks or toxic gas poisoning risks. Deciding detector placements for good detection coverage that will ensure fast alarming of gas releases is therefore a critical task for the gas detection system engineer. This task is significantly more difficult when the area to be monitored is an open space that is subjected to changes of wind speed and direction. Having to balance between risk mitigation and cost considerations further complicates this task.